Security Stress

I haven't been traveling for quite some time so several things annoyed me on the trip to Singapore.
Firstly checking in in Bergen turned out to be quite a hassle - mom and I had excess luggage. Mom was over the 32 kilo limit, so we had to open our suitcases and start rearranging everything in front of the the counter, which was stressful. Hey! Don't judge us! It's Christmas and the fact that my dad was certain that they didn't have coffee makers here in Singapore didn't help either! Oh well - then off to pass through security which was downright awful! Flesland (Bergen Airport) seriously needs to re-think their customer service. I'm fine with the fact that I needed to take out my computer and the oh so ridiculous liquid bag and my jacket and my shoes and put them in these plastic container type things - but it would be nice if they actually made sure there were enough plastic containers and room to collect and re-pack and dress after the control. A smile wouldn't be out of hand either. Also, my dad has a favorite type of lighter that he can't find in Singapore - so I had bought four of them with me. As a precaution and also as a bit of a joke - I had put these lighters in my liquids bag. Stupid me! Because I was then told off and told that I could only have 2 lighters with me (never mind the other three I had loosely in my bag) - so mom needed to take the other two. Then they turned their back on me and I had to stressfully put my jacket back on, computer in bag again, shoes and urgh - the stress! In my opinion they could at the very least create some space for people to rearrange their stuff after security - but service obviously isn't a priority!
Then it was the tax free shopping! Urgh! We bought our limit of tobacco and alcohol and lots and lots of candy. Approaching the counter - the lady didn't want to sell us the alcohol because she thought Singapore is in the States! Then, because of the sealed bag crap - we asked nicely if she wouldn't mind distributing the weighty things into two bags - but she thought she could fit it all into one and refused to listen to us - of course we were right and she was wrong! So we ended up with one really heavy bag and one really light one! Now! We get the sealed bags - but we have to put these bags into carrier bags ourselves - again - no freakin space to do this in! Argh - I was sooooooooooooo freakin annoyed!

Finally off to Amsterdam where I was sure that I would be thrown out of the airport. Yet again - more security and extremely little space to unload and undress and the tiniest little plastic containers to put everything in! Oh - and my liquids bag was apparently a tad to big so I had to stuff my bag into a smaller one, which at least was given me, so kudos for that. After unloading all my crap and distributing it in tiny containers everything just stopped. The staff just stood there hands in pocket and joked among themselves having a hoot of a time, while I had no idea what was going on! My cheeks were red with stress and in the end I had to ask "Excuse me, what's going on?!". Where 3 staff members hostily ganged up on me and started yelling that there was a technical problem with the scan thing. I was so provoked - and I couldn't help saying "You know...it would be nice to be told that instead of just leaving me standing here clueless!". Oh the looks and the hostility! I just needed to shut up out of fear for being thrown out for being disrupted!!!

On the plane I suddenly realized that I hadn't been able to buy a sealed airport approved bottle of water nor had I been able to find a tiny toothbrush and toothpaste packaged which would be approved for flying. Oh well - of course six hours into the flight the cabin crew had disappeared for the 'night' and I was absolutely dying of thirst. Sitting in the middle of two heavy leaning (towards me) sleepers didn't help much either. I had three hours of thirst before I finally managed to crawl out to get some water. A little tip - maybe give passengers a sealed and approved bottle of water when they enter the plane? Flying is seriously dehydrating - and it would have been nice to have my usual bottle of water near me. I honestly don't understand why more people don't get hostile when flying - I was ready to explode several times.

Jepp - very much to complain about, of course - what else is a travel blog about? Hehe!